Protest signs may be still be great for getting your picture in the paper. And for attracting like-minded people.

But they often generate far more confrontation then change. And they can scare off people at the fringes of an issue where important social debates can be won or lost.

To win support “in the middle,” you need to be a lot more creative, like this incredibly clever video produced by a UK group protesting the building of a new coal-fired power plant at Kingsnorth.

Rather than chaining themselves to smokestacks or charcoaling their faces, these folks chose to promote a rational argument instead: The technology for the proposed plant’s Carbon Capture and Storage (CSS) system, while laudable, hasn’t been proven yet.

And they make that point, brilliantly, with humor rather than hate.

Though launched as an April Fool’s goof, the campaign demonstrates far more sophistication—and invites far more conversation—than most conventional forms of protest.